Sunday's Best: Week 1, 2022

Welcome to Sunday's Best, where we talk about the best of... something! There will be a new topic or list each week. This week, the best commercials featuring hair metal and rock bands!

Metallica - AOL - 2003

Geico - featuring RATT - 2020

Warrant - Rockline - late 80s probably

Aerosmith - The Gap - 1999

Alice Cooper - Marriott - 2002

KISS and Little Kiss - Dr. Pepper - 2010

... and the best memory of them all... when CDs and cassettes were advertised on television! Monster Ballads Hit Collection. - Circa 1999

The Best Hard Rock Albums Of 2021

Overall, 2021 was a good year in heavy music. There were lots of releases, proving that Gene Simmons is definitely wrong about rock being dead. You just have to know where to find it these days. The following list are my favorite releases of 2021, in no real order. Hopefully you discover something new here. I bet we share a lot of favorites - a few videos are below. What do you think?

• The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood - Ice Nine Kills 

• Dirty Honey - Dirty Honey

• Mammoth WVH - Mammoth WVH 

• Smith/Kotzen - Smith/Kotzen

• For Those That Wish To Exist - Architects

• Senjutsu - Iron Maiden

• Bullet For My Valentine - Bullet For My Valentine

• Checkered Past - L.A. Guns

• Sacrifice - The Devil Wears Prada 

• The Gospel Truth - Gilby Clarke

• Detroit Stories - Alice Cooper

Just Another Reason To Love Alice Cooper

Just a little more proof that Alice Cooper is a superb human. Alice recently did an awesome interview with Jim Ryan of Forbes magazine. He talks about all sorts of topics, like the time he appeared on the cover of Forbes back in 1973 and how hard rock endures. Of course, the conversation revolved a lot around the pandemic and how hard it has been for touring acts. Alice, in his typical fashion, seemed ready at the get go:

"AC: Oh my gosh. When we saw this coming, we put money aside for our crew. We could see that it was… something. So we put money aside as a backup for them. Because we knew that their unemployment would run out, you know? And then they’d have something to go to. I think all responsible bands did that. Hopefully.

Because these are people we live with. We work with them every day. The guys that run the stage are as important as the guys that play guitar. So we made sure that everybody was covered. And that was really important.

Hey, we thought this thing was gonna last a month! 18 months?! Unreal.

Read the whole interview by clicking through below - it is worth your time.

Had a great chat last month with @alicecooper about interacting with fans and returning to the stage as the Days of the Dead convention wrapped up in Chicago. Fantastic portraits too. My @ForbesEnt Q&A with Alice Cooper… https://t.co/fCrBPNbzH2

— Jim Ryan (@radioJimRyan) December 22, 2021

We Should All Be More Like Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper went viral on Twitter yesterday. As with all the stars we love, my heart skipped a beat. I was worried he was hurt - or worse. Turns out, people were just very happy about a photo of the "dark" rocker feeding kids at a shelter. Obviously Alice has the resources to help those in need, which is wonderful. Here's the thing: the photo is old. But it doesn't matter, because it shows Alice's character. These days, he has a foundation for teens called Solid Rock, meant to enrich the lives of kids through music. I love a heavy metal badass.

Alice Cooper serving food at a shelter...... pic.twitter.com/qatNjMTPiM

— Humphrey Bogarts hungover pissed off ghost (@Robertsixto2) December 19, 2021